Projected NCAA Field of 64

Like last year, I will follow in my leader’s footsteps and attempt to predict the NCAA Tournament field. You should also check out Ricky Nelson’s site as he’ll be doing the same exercise independently of me.

Once again, I went through the selection process and you can see my thoughts as it was done by clicking here. There are points where it gets ugly.

The online selection show will be tomorrow (Monday) at 11:30 a.m. Central. Hopefully this link will work – NCAA Selection Show. Failing that, here is the DIII Volleyball Home Page.

My yearly at-large matches with the national selection committee: 2017: 17 of 21

Pool A (43)

Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference: Pittsburgh – Bradford American Rivers Conference: Dubuque American Southwest Conference: Mary Hardin-Baylor Capital Athletic Conference: Christopher Newport Centennial Conference: Johns Hopkins City University of New York Athletic Conference: Hunter College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin: Illinois Wesleyan Colonial States Athletic Conference: Notre Dame Commonwealth Coast Conference: Wentworth Commonwealth Conference: Stevenson Empire 8 Athletic Conference: Nazareth Freedom Conference: Eastern Great Northeast Athletic Conference: Johnson & Wales (R.I.) Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference: Rose-Hulman Landmark Conference: Juniata Liberty League: RIT Little East Conference: Eastern Connecticut State Massachusetts State College Athletic Conference: Worcester State Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association: Calvin Midwest Conference: Cornell Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference: Gustavus Adolphus New England Collegiate Conference: Southern Vermont New England Small College Athletic Conference: Bowdoin New England Women’s and Men’s Athletics Conference: Babson New Jersey Athletic Conference: Kean North Atlantic Conference: Maine Maritime North Coast Athletic Conference: Wittenberg North Eastern Athletic Conference: Morrisville State Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference: Aurora Northwest Conference: Pacific Lutheran Ohio Athletic Conference: Ohio Northern Old Dominion Athletic Conference: Washington & Lee Presidents’ Athletic Conference: Bethany Skyline Conference: Mount Saint Vincent Southern Athletic Association: Berry Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference: Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference: Colorado College St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference: Greenville State University of New York Athletic Conference: SUNY New Paltz University Athletic Association: Emory Upper Midwest Conference: Minnesota-Morris USA South Athletic Conference: Meredith Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference: Wisconsin-Eau Claire

Pool B (2)

Thomas More Marymount (Va)

Pool C (19)

Augsburg Birmingham-Southern Cal Lutheran Carnegie Mellon Chicago DePauw Hope Ithaca La VerneCarthage Mary Washington Saint Benedict Springfield St. Thomas Trinity UT-DallasFranklin & Marshall Washington-St. Louis Wellesley Wesleyan Wisconsin-Whitewater

Upon further review…those that followed my selection process know that I took MIT as the first New England team off the board and they no longer show up in my list. Through my mock selection, MIT was acting as a block in the New England Region. Eventually, I just took them because I knew that region would get teams in. This worried me. After my mock selection I went back to the New England Rankings and determined that it’s quite possible that MIT will be dropped. I believe (for a number of reasons) that Springfield will be ranked in a position to be selected. When I did my final super secret comparison, they came out on top. Well…not really…but I think three New England teams are getting in.

Ricky is emailing me, which means he has posted his prediction.

It appears we differ on four teams. He has Bethel, Carthage, Concordia Wisconsin and MIT. I have DePauw, Mary Washington, Springfield and Wellesley. If you ask me which four three teams I think will win, I’ll take Ricky’s. If you ask me which four teams are more likely to be selected, I’ll take mine.

UPDATE

The tournament has been announced. I’ll have a separate post to discuss my thoughts. As far as my prediction, the last two teams I selected didn’t make it and both happen to be from the West Region. When I was going through my selection, I could see that La Verne was blocking UT-Dallas. With that said, La Verne I believe wins the comparison with Franklin & Marshall who have no business being in this tournament. I mean, La Verne did beat them, has better ranked wins and a better SOS! If UT-Dallas had been considered against DePauw then UT-Dallas wins that comparison as they have a better record, better ranked wins and a head-to-head win. Just weird. I can understand not selecting the two West Region teams but you can’t take those teams over them.

Overall, I got 19 of 21 correct.